[Video]: KOKOKO! – “Buka Dansa”

KOKOKO! are a Congolese Kinshasa-based collective. It consists of musical instrument inventors from the Ngwaka neighbourhood, electronic producer débruit, Makara Bianko (aka the Lingwala devil) and his dancers bursting forth from the Lingwala neighbourhood. Last year they released a new EP titled Liboso.

Now they’re back with their first full-length. Fongola is out now via Transgressive which was co-produced with Xavier Thomas aka Débruit, which says about the album: “You can trace the seeds of Fongola back to so many different places. It began in Kinshasa in the Ngwaka neighbourhood where DIY experimental musical instruments are made, and the Lingwala neighbourhood where Makara Bianko sings every night on electronic loops with his dancers and where the band first met.

We spent our tours across Europe dreaming about what we wanted to tell the world. It was recorded in makeshift studios we built out of ping pong tables and mattresses in Kinshasa and Brussels. Finally, I spent months putting it all together in Abattoir, Anderlecht like a giant electronic puzzle with pieces that don’t fit and no blueprint.”